I’ve called at least 10 times to explain I am in a committed relationship with another carrier, and I’ve even crossed out my address and written “return to sender” (that got old quick, plus I didn’t want to waste anymore precious permanent marker ink) and I’m on the national do not mail list. The promotional material won’t stop coming.

I have no idea how to exorcise Verizon, but it’s an awful, terrible company. I recently moved apartments and my DSL connection would not work. I finally decided to cancel after about five phone calls (each of which involved literally ten minutes of pressing through menu prompts and then explaining my situation to an operator in Dubai or some foreign outpost) and one service appointment which they missed without even an acknowledgment. By contrast, TWC was actually staffed by a friendly and professional person, not a computer menu. And they showed up right at the start of the installation time window. I cannot understand why Verizon offers such awful customer service in this economy.

I took me almost a year and a half to get a replacement, refund check from Verizon. Said refund check came promptly after I switched to TWC but…BUT…it was in the name of the DECEASED former homeowner. Said homeowner died…in 2000!

Kristi, just to let you know I called to cancel the Times Union paper delivery, but I can’t wait on hold for up to 10 minutes at a time. So your next blog should be about customer service at the Times Union, or should I say “lack of customer service.”

Kristi, I also did the TWC contract deal. I was able to add a service and still pay less than I did.

I also do the Return To Sender trick but I have a stack of labels ready to paste on.

You can also fake them out. Simply call them up and say “Im moving this week and will be considering Verizon for my provide…can I change my address?” and give them the street address for the nearest Verizon store.

If you can recycle the junk, just toss it all in the bin and let ’em keep sending. If you can’t, call their press office and tell ’em you’re going to suggest to the consumer advocate reporter a story on how they ignore requests to halt junk mail campaigns and are therefore actively anti-green and contributing to millions of unneeded pounds of paper in landfills due to corporate greed. Lay it on thick. That oughta stop it.

I’m not sure if the do-not-mail list’s rules are identical to the do-not-call list, but that allows any company with which you have an existing relationship to call…so if you have Verizon Wireless, maybe they can send stuff thru that loophole.

any junk mail that comes with a pre stamped envelope back to the company goes right there…completely empty. It has to hurt their bottom line for any message to be conveyed. plus…i love sending them their own crap right back…

Verizon has the worst customer service ever. We wasted most of a vacation day one summer waiting for the service man to show up and connect a phone. When we finally decided to tell them to forget about it, we’d be transferred from department to department, put on hold, and then disconnected. I’d had problems with Verizon years ago when trying to have a phone connected. I spoke to two women who obviously enjoyed being rude just because they could.

I really enjoy sticking it to Verizon every month by having a cable phone from TWC! And their service is much, much better. Only once was an installer late, and I was not charged any installation fee because of it!

Don’t even get me started on National Grid.

Yeah Right, Kristi’s attack on Verizon was minor compared to what you Verizon workers really deserve.

I Love Time Warner. Was never happy with the land line or the wireless, but the worst was their customer service. They came literally BANGING on the door one evening to try to sell us FIOS. They would not take no for an answer, so we finally closed the door in our face. Calls to Verizon were useless. They promised someone would get back to us to discuss, (several times) but but one ever did.

Here is the last ditch effort to get rid of junk mail indefinitely. Take your junk mail applications and mix it up and mail it back verizon. They’ll stop it. Now only if they would stop putting dsl fios fliers in my newspaper when I cant get it Ill be happy.

Bottom line: I make these decisions based on the quality and reliability of the service. Hands down, Verizon is the best. Their network/landlines work when the commercial power goes out, which happens a lot up in Clifton Park. I buy a connection to the world and expect it to work 24 x7. I cannot say that for Time Warner. Period…end of sentence. We’re talking about a critical lifeline here, not a pair of trousers at the mall, people. Sure, we can get into a discussion about customer service and direct mail/marketing after that…but I start at the beginning: give me a gosh-darn line that works all of the time and doesn’t sound like you’re talking on tin cans and string.

I was without land-line dial-tone last year for a total of 6 days (3 separate episodes) Wireless has been, and continues to be relatively painless.

Threats to move to TWC was required to spur the service group into action. I keep the Verizon line because it serves as a home office and fax line. I suspect the next instance will push me over the edge.

I fully expect the land-line Verizon business to soon go away, shed to an investment group to cut costs.

I dont know what part of CP you live in CPMark, but last year my Verizon land line (for the older fax machine I use) didn’t work when we had that outage last year. And I live around the corner form the Grooms Road CO.

When i hook my generator up to my house and turned on the TV I still had cable. Yes, TV only…but my fax line was still dead.

Question for the Clifton Park people: Why is it that the power goes out so often in Clifton Park? I’m not talking about the ice storm last December; I’m talking about the little blips that happen a couple of times a week.

# 28 — The ice storm last December was a rare exception. Tt depends on the length of the outage. The ice storm outage was several days. The batteries that back up parts of the local landline network died after 24 hours, but were restored when some small portable generators were deployed. All of the main Verizon switching centers have backup diesel generators that kick on automatically when the power goes out. The ice storm last December was unusual for its length. For the normal power outage of several hours to a day, the Verizon network keeps going. Trust me — having lived in Clifton Park for 20 years and experiencing literally hundreds of power outages, the phone kept/keeps working. The Time Warner phones did not/do not keep working.

# 29 — I have no clue why Clifton Park has so many power outages. It has become a fact of life, and indeed quite a joke. I’ve talked to numerous NiMO and Nat. Grid. mgrs over the years and I’ve received dozens of different explanations. My personal theory is the grid there was never designed to handle the load created by so much development.

CPMark, maybe you need to buy a better phone, because I live in Clifton Park, have TWC phone service and the sound quality is perfectly fine. Although I have to agree if the power goes out in can be a bit annoying, but I just use my cell if need be. Maybe your thinking of Vonage, the sound quality on that was horrendous, the echo! Not to mention the 5 second delay. I can always tell when I’m talking to someone with that service.

As far as Crabby Ol’ Roz’s question, it’s all the damn squirrels frying themselves on the power lines. That or the limbs falling from all those trees in the Van Patten developments! They really need to take the whole thing underground.

Very funny, re. the squirrels, dgc. As for the phone quality, I’ll admit the TW phone lines sound decent when compared to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) over Vonage or Skype, but I can always tell when I’m talking to someone on the TW phone. It’s fine, but just not the quality I was used to. I’m not even saying I wouldn’t ever switch to cable phone, but I hate Time Warner’s quality of service with respect to cable TV. When I witched to a new box for high def last summer, I went through four set-top boxes, four tech visits and finally a manager’s visit before it worked right.

I think you hit the nail on the head with the opinion that heavy development of the area is just to much on the local infrastructure.

Also and fyi – the TWC store in the mall is not supposed to handle TWC complaints…but if you get your space on their counter and politely explain your problem, they may open a ticket for you and you will get a better response from TWC service. I think its because the trouble ticket opened by a TW store carries a higher priority in the ticket system.

Verizon has ruined my life and neighbors on 13th Ave in Mineola, NY
They have built a generator plant that runs night and day cant sleep or
have guests in my yard. Promises promises from Verizon to try to
buffer some of the noise. However no one would ever buy my house with
a launch pad in thier yard